The sun was strong overhead as Adrian Cahill took his place at the start of the obstacle course.

The 7-year-old scanned the field, his eyes dancing with excitement as he surveyed the many challenges that lay in his path. At the call to begin, Adrian was off like a flash.

He scrambled up and over tall stacks of hay, swung across a pool of water, leaped over hurdles and climbed gingerly through a maze of string lines. At the end, Adrian was rewarded with a medal of achievement, which he wore with a proud smile for the rest of the day.

It might sound like some sort of junior ROTC competition, but this kid-friendly obstacle course was actually just one of the signature events of the 2014 Wipeout Cancer Sports Day for Charity. On July 26, the fields at the Campbell Community Center were transformed into a multi-sport arena for this all-day outdoor fundraiser.

Wipeout Cancer Sports Day drew more than 500 adults, teens and children out for a day of fun for a good cause. Participants had their pick of a variety of activities: three different bike rides, a volleyball tournament with multiple divisions and the children's obstacle course.

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Only in its second year, the inaugural Wipeout Cancer event in 2013 raised more than $20,000. Those funds were split equally between The Livestrong Foundation and Cancer CAREpoint, a San Jose nonprofit that provides counseling, assistance and education to local cancer patients and their families.

The final dollar amount raised at this year's Sports Day is still being tabulated, but all of the proceeds will be going to Cancer CAREpoint. The event's chosen beneficiary and sport-focused theme all come from the inspiring story of Wipeout Cancer's founder Caroline Lee.

An athlete all her life, Lee became a local hero in 2010 when she won $50,000 on the TV show Wipeout. Lee said the moment she realized she was the victor was one of the greatest in her life.

"It's second to none," she said. "You don't know you've won until they tell you, so when the host Jill told me, I was like, 'yes!' "

However, the obstacles Lee had to hurdle to win the competition that day were nothing compared to what she would face just two years later. In the summer of 2012, she was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer.

"It's shocking," Lee said of learning she had cancer. "They told me I had two cysts and I'd need surgery and chemo. I'd never had surgery before. I was healthy and active."

With the support of her family, friends and colleagues, Lee made it through her surgery, chemotherapy and drug treatments. She says it was during her recovery time that the idea for Wipeout Cancer was born.

"I was restless from sitting around and I kept thinking, 'How can I give back?' " Lee said.

She decided on an event that focused on the thing she loves most: sports. And Lee wanted all of her favorites represented--volleyball, biking and an obstacle course--to serve as tribute to her success on Wipeout.

"I've run volleyball tournaments before, but I knew that adding in biking, obstacles and a raffle would be tricky," Lee said. "My friends said to me, 'If you want to do this, we're behind you.' "

More than 100 volunteers, most of them Lee's friends, family and co-workers, helped put on this year's Sports Day. Every job from securing sponsors six months in advance to setting up 20 volleyball nets at 6 a.m. the day of are all done by the same group of people who have been by Lee's side since day one.

Mabelle Artz, who took the initiative of signing Lee up for Wipeout all those years ago, said it means a lot to organize this event with her longtime friend.

"Knowing how much strength and courage she has, it makes you want to do more," Artz said. "It gives a lot of inspiration to people."

Artz added that many of the participants in the sports day are moved by the event's cause.

"More than 50 percent of them have had cancer touch them in some way," she said. "A lot of them are survivors."